Nursing leadership to facilitate patient participation in fundamental care: An ethnographic qualitative study.

AIMS: To explore and describe hospital nurses' perceptions of leadership behaviours in facilitating patient participation in fundamental care. DESIGN: An ethnographic interview study. METHODS: Individual semi-structured interviews with 12 nurses with a bachelor's or master's degree working at a university medical centre were conducted between February and April 2021. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Six themes were derived from the data: (1) nursing leadership; (2) patient participation; (3) using patients' preferences; (4) building relationships; (5) task-focused nursing; (6) need for role modelling. CONCLUSION: Nurses indicated leadership behaviour to facilitate patient participation in fundamental care as inviting patients to participate and eliciting and supporting patients' preferences. Although nurses also regarded leadership as motivating colleagues to act and enhancing evidence-based practice, they appeared not to practise this themselves about patient participation. Role modelling was indicated as a need for improvement. IMPACT: The findings established that not all leadership behaviours mentioned were used in practice about patient participation in fundamental care. Role modelling and the use of evidence-based practice are needed to increase patient participation. Further research will be necessary to develop and test leadership interventions to improve patient participation in fundamental care.

Individualised care in Flemish and Dutch hospitals: Comparing patients' and nurses' perceptions.

BACKGROUND: Patient-centred care has been recognised as vital for today's healthcare quality. This type of care puts patients at the centre, contributing to positive patient outcomes such as patient autonomy. Empirical research comparing nurses' and patients' perceptions of the support and provision of patient-centred care is limited and focuses solely on nurses and patients working and staying on surgical wards. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Comparing patients' and nurses' perceptions of patient-centred care on different types of hospital wards, and exploring if patient empowerment, health literacy, and certain sociodemographic and context-related variables are associated with these perceptions. DESIGN: Cross-sectional design. METHODS: Data were collected in ten Flemish (February-June 2016) and two Dutch (December 2014-May 2015) hospitals using the Individualised Care Scale (ICS). A linear mixed model was fitted. Data from 845 patients and 569 nurses were analysed. As the ICS was used to measure the concept of patient-centred care, it is described using the term 'individualised care.' RESULTS: Nurses perceived that they supported and provided individualised care more compared with patients as they scored significantly higher on the ICS compared with patients. Patients with higher empowerment scores, higher health literacy, a degree lower than bachelor, a longer hospital stay, and patients who were employed and who were admitted to Dutch hospitals scored significantly higher on some of the ICS subscales/subsections. Nurses who were older and more experienced and those working in Dutch hospitals, regional hospitals and maternity wards scored significantly higher on some of the ICS subscales/subsections. CONCLUSION: Nurses perceived that they supported and provided individualised care more compared with patients. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Creating a shared understanding towards the support and provision of individualised care should be a priority as this could generate more effective nursing care that takes into account the individuality of the patient.

Feasibility and early effectiveness of the Tell-us Card communication tool to increase in-hospital patient participation: a cluster randomised controlled pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Patient participation is fundamental to nursing care and has beneficial effects on patient outcomes. However, it is not well embedded yet and little is known on how nurses could effectively stimulate patient participation in hospital care. The Tell-us Card is a communication tool for inviting patients to talk about their preferences and needs, and to increase patient participation in daily care. OBJECTIVES: To assess feasibility and early effectiveness of the Tell-us Card communication tool for enhanced patient participation during hospitalisation. DESIGN AND METHOD: A pilot cluster randomised controlled study design was used including four nursing wards. Effectiveness was measured with the Individualized Care Scale (ICS) and the Quality from the Patients' Perspective (QPP) questionnaire. Linear mixed model analysis was used for analysis. Feasibility was assessed with an evaluative questionnaire for patients and nurses and by reviewing the content of Tell-us Cards using the Fundamentals of Care Framework (FOCF) for analysis. Ethical approval was attained. RESULTS: Data of 265 patients showed a significant increase at one intervention ward on the ICS (effect size 0.61, p = 0.02) and most ICS subscales. No effect was visible on the QPP. The majority of patients regarded the intervention as beneficial; nurses however experienced barriers with incorporating the Tell-us Card into daily care. Analysis of the Tell-us Card content showed many elements of the FOCF being mentioned, with most patients indicating psychosocial needs like being involved and informed. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study showed a positive early effect of the Tell-us Card communication tool on patient participation, although integration in daily nursing care appeared to be complex and an optimal fit has not yet been reached. Patients were positive about the intervention and wrote meaningful issues on the Tell-us Cards. More research is needed on how to incorporate patient participation effectively in complex hospital care.

Exploring person-centred fundamental nursing care in hospital wards: A multi-site ethnography.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how nurses in hospitals enact person-centred fundamental care delivery. BACKGROUND: Effective person-centred care is at the heart of fundamental nursing care, but it is deemed to be challenging in acute health care as there is a strong biomedical focus and most nurses are not trained in person-centred fundamental care delivery. We therefore need to know if and how nurses currently incorporate a person-centred approach during fundamental care. DESIGN: Focused ethnography approach. METHODS: Observations of 30 nurses on three different wards in two Dutch hospitals during their morning shift. Data were collected through passive observations and analysed using framework analysis based on the fundamentals of care framework. The COREQ guideline was used for reporting. RESULTS: Some nurses successfully integrate physical, psychosocial and relational elements of care in patient interactions. However, most nurses were observed to be mainly focused on physical care and did not take the time at their patients' bedside to care for their psychosocial and relational needs. Many had a task-focused way of working and communicating, seldom incorporating patients' needs and experiences or discussing care planning, and often disturbing each other. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that although some nurses manage to do so, person-centred fundamental care delivery remains a challenge in hospitals, as most nurses have a task-focused approach and therefore do not manage to integrate the physical, relational and physical elements of care. For further improvement, attention needs to be paid to integrated fundamental care and clinical reasoning skills. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Although most nurses have a compassionate approach, this study shows that nurses do not incorporate psychosocial care or encourage patient participation when helping patients with their physical fundamental care needs, even though there seems to be sufficient opportunity for them to do so.

Tailoring of the Tell-us Card communication tool for nurses to increase patient participation using Intervention Mapping.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the tailoring of the Tell-us Card intervention for enhanced patient participation to the Dutch hospital setting using Intervention Mapping as a systematic approach. BACKGROUND: Even though patient participation is essential in any patient-to-nurse encounter, care plans often fail to take patients' preferences into account. The Tell-us Card intervention seems promising, but needs to be tailored and tested before implementation in a different setting or on large scale. DESIGN: Description of the Intervention Mapping framework to systematically tailor the Tell-us Card intervention to the Dutch hospital setting. METHODS: Intervention Mapping consists of: (i) identification of the problem through needs assessment and determination of fit, based on patients and nurses interviews and focus group interviews; (ii) developing a logic model of change and matrices, based on literature and interviews; (iii) selection of theory-based methods and practical applications; (iv) producing programme components and piloting; (v) planning for adoption, implementation and sustainability; and (vi) preparing for programme evaluation. RESULTS: Knowledge, attitude, outcome expectations, self-efficacy and skills were identified as the main determinants influencing the use of the Tell-us Card. Linking identified determinants and performance objectives with behaviour change techniques from the literature resulted in a well-defined and tailored intervention and evaluation plan. CONCLUSIONS: The Tell-us Card intervention was adapted to fit the Dutch hospital setting and prepared for evaluation. The Medical Research Council framework was followed, and the Intervention Mapping approach was used to prepare a pilot study to confirm feasibility and relevant outcomes. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This article shows how Intervention Mapping is applied within the Medical Research Council framework to adapt the Tell-us Card intervention, which could serve as a guide for the tailoring of similar interventions.